TOI asks Chennai readers to wake up to The Times of India

Times of India has launched a new campaign for its Chennai edition. The campaign titled, 'Wake up to The Times of India' has been created by Taproot India.

The TVC blends in a tamil lullaby with different scenes in a satirical way so as to project that the readers of Chennai have been reading boring papers for a long time and it's time they switched to TOI's Chennai edition for their daily dose of news.

The TVC contains sequence of a school boy who's sleeping on his coach's shoulder while getting clicked with his team after their victory at some sport. Next sequence shows a man carrying a newspaper in his hand, who is dosing off on a traditional Indian wrestler (in a standing mode), while the other wrestlers continue their warm-up exercises. Another sequence shows a man sleeping on top of a car using the newspaper as a cushion, amidst a political rally. At each of these sequences, the lullaby has been synced in such a way that it shows that they are being put to sleep, being asked to have a blissful sleep. And then surfaces the million dollar question, 'Stuck with news that puts you to sleep?', and the last shot shows an eye figuratively opening up to the TOI, where the graphic reads, 'Wake up to The Times of India'.

On the idea behind the campaign, Priya Gupta, vice-president, Times of India (Brand), said, "Times of India Chennai edition was launched in 2008 and it has done extremely well so far. This campaign was particularly relevant to Chennai market because there our competitors are essentially about 'handouts and handshakes'. We, on the other hand, are more devoted to bringing out interesting news. So, the idea was to underline to the consumer that if he's stuck with boring news, he should switch to TOI Chennai."

On the execution of the campaign, Agnello Dias, chairman and co-founder, Taproot India, said, "It is indeed a very interesting advertising task. Highlighting a problem is a creative format that has not been done in the recent past. Putting the reader in real life, typical news situations from the morning paper that are so boring, he snores through the morning makes for dramatic imagery. Boredom is quite sluggish to experience but intriguing to watch and that is the engagement point of this commercial. The soundtrack is a legendary Tamil nursery rhyme re-recorded to accentuate boredom and if you get the words, its even more fascinating."

Here are the print commercials of the campaign

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